Investment cash flow sensitivity and financial constraint: a cluster analysis approach

This article sheds light on the mixed empirical evidence concerning financial constraint and investment sensitivity to cash flow. The literature suggests that measuring financial constraint is far from straightforward, and we therefore propose a cluster analysis procedure to identify unambiguous groups of constrained firms. We found the investment results to be highly sensitive to cash flow for financial constraint firms. Moreover, in line with previous research, our results showed that the traditional criteria used to identify financially constrained firms led to ambiguous interpretations. Overall, our results propose that the cluster analysis can be used to encompass the various single-criterion approaches, thereby providing a finer measurement of the financial constraint construct and deeper insight into the relationship between investment sensitivity to cash flow and financial constraint.     

R&D investment,cash holdings and the financial crisis: evidence from Korean corporate data

This article examines the real effects of the financial crisis in 2008 on corporate R&D investment by analyzing firm-level panel data from 2005 to 2011 obtained from KIS-VALUE, a Korean corporate finance database. I estimate a dynamic panel model of R&D investment that includes an after-crisis dummy to reflect the effects of the external finance supply shock after the financial crisis, an interaction term of the dummy and cash holdings to measure the marginal effect of cash holdings after the crisis, investment opportunities (sales and the q ratio) and financial positions as the debt-equity ratio. The estimation implies a negative yet relatively small impact of the credit supply shock from the financial crisis on R&D investment and the mitigation of the negative impacts by cash holdings after the onset of the financial crisis, whereas the data show decreasing R&D investment and sales for the whole period. Based on the data and the estimation, I find that firms were able to lessen the pressure from diminishing market demand before the crisis using external finance, but they had to use internal financial sources after the crisis smooth R&D investment.     

Investment opportunities and cash holdings of firms: an empirical study on Korean firms

We find that the cash flow sensitivity of cash holdings of firms whose investment opportunities are lower is significantly higher by examining a panel data of 898 Korean firms for 1999–2014. The cash flow sensitivity of investment is also found to be lower in case of low investment opportunity. Both findings suggest that firms decide to hold cash in response to an increase in cash flow when they do not have a good investment opportunity. Precautionary motive because of financial constraints and uncertainty, and agency problems, however, are not associated with the cash flow sensitivity of cash holdings. These findings imply that it is necessary to develop new investment opportunities to encourage firms to spend more cash in Korea.     

Finance constraints or free cash flow?

It has long been argued that firms prefer internal to external finance for funding investment. Modern literatures in industrial organization, macroeconomics, and finance argue this preference is caused by information asymmetries. There are, however, important disagreements about the effect of the asymmetries. Asymmetries may lead to binding financing constraints, or they may allow managers to use free cash flow for unprofitable projects. Each model predicts a different relationship between investment and changes in debt finance and this paper estimates this relationship using firm-level data. The principal findings are that both financing constraints and the agency costs of free cash flow affect investment in a manner consistent with a life cycle model of the firm.     

Socially responsible and conventional investment funds: performance comparison and the global financial crisis

We investigate the performance of socially responsible funds (SRFs) and conventional funds (CFs) in different market (geographical area and class size) segments during the period 1992–2012. From an unbalanced sample of more than 22 000 funds, we define a matched sample using a beta-distance measure to match any SRF with the ‘nearest neighbour’ CF in terms of sensitivity to risk factors. Using this matching approach and a recursive analysis, we identify several switch points in the lead/lag relationship between the two investment styles over time in different market segments. A relevant finding of our analysis is that SRFs played an ‘insurance role’ outperforming CFs during the 2007 global financial crisis.     

Analysing the effect of excess cash accumulation on financial decisions

In this current moment of crisis it is very important for firms to hold a suitable amount of cash. But it is also very important to analyse how this amount of cash affects firm value. Here an in-depth study is made of the determination of firm value centring our attention on the problem of excess cash accumulation. This article adds important value to the existing literature since, employing the panel data methodology in the sample of Spanish nonfinancial firms, it identifies whether excess cash holding affects firm value in general, and investment, financing and dividend decisions in particular. The results show how asymmetric information among the economic agents of the firm affects the cash reserves. In particular, shareholders could penalize the investment made by these firms and consider the positive effect that the debt in particular and the dividend policies exert on the firm. Moreover, the results reveal the importance of financial flexibility as opposed to the arguments provided by agency theory.     

全球金融危机对台湾决策思维的影响

2008年全球金融海啸使得发达国家面对自上世纪30年代以来最大的衰退，但是发展中国家如金砖四国却依然持续发展。许多经济学家严厉地警告，家计单位及企业的消费支出减少，而对产出的影响更为严重，此举迫使台湾不得不通过扩大消费的方式，来挽回疲弱的经济力。本文针对此次全球金融危机对于台湾当局在因应策略上，关于全球金融体制的崩溃分析、有关当局的处理布局、国际经济组织及先进国家处理经验及建立新的清算机制等因应之道做分析与探讨，提供政策建议，希望封尔後的金融布局有所帮助。     

Understanding spread in the electronic futures markets: financial crisis perspective

This article analyses bid–ask spreads in U.S. electronic futures markets around the recent financial crisis. We decompose the bid–ask spread into three components – order processing, inventory holding and adverse selection costs – and show that adverse selection costs increased the most during the crisis while order processing costs are the largest cost component. Volume significantly affects inventory holding and order processing costs, whereas volatility only influences inventory holding costs. The crisis period had a significant effect on these relations. This study extends the existing literature on liquidity in equity to futures markets.     

Spillover effects of the 2008 financial crisis on NIE stock markets

This article estimates dynamic conditional correlations of stock returns across countries by using DCC–GARCH model and analyse spillover effects of the 2008 financial crisis on the NIE’s stock markets. The results show that there is no regime shift in mean equation of the correlation coefficient during the financial crisis. It may imply there are no mean spillover effects of the US financial crisis on the NIE’s stock markets. However, there are volatility spillover effects of the financial crisis sparked in 2008 from the US to the NIE’s markets.     

Speculative bubbles,financial crises and convergence in global real estate investment trusts

We test for price bubbles in 14 national real estate investment trust (REIT) markets, and measure the degree of their convergence towards a common trend. Our methodology consists of the recently developed test of Phillips, Shi and Yu (2014) for mildly explosive processes, and the Phillips and Sul (2007) method for modelling convergence among random variables. We find evidence of explosive behaviour in index levels of seven of the 14 markets. In contrast, explosive dynamics are found in only one price/dividend ratio. More than half of the episodes of explosive behaviour are date-stamped to periods prior to the 2007–2009 financial crisis. We also discover a number of periods over which the markets converge towards a common trend. Interestingly, all of the convergence intervals coincide either with periods of crisis, or with periods of market exuberance. For instance, evidence of convergence is found during the 2000 dot-com crash, the 2007–2009 subprime crisis and the 2010–2013 European sovereign debt crisis, as well as over the bubble period of 2004–2005.     

财务危机预测模型的构建

基于Logistic回归模型,选取中国制造业上市公司作为样本对财务危机预测进行研究。从企业的盈利能力、营运能力、偿债能力、成长能力、现金流量等方面出发,选取了10个财务预警指标,经过回归分析得出,总资产收益率、总资产周转率、资产负债率、主营业务增长率、经营活动现金净流量对负债的比率五项财务指标对上市公司发生财务危机有重要影响。从而提出要从提高盈利能力、提升营运能力、增强偿债能力、提高成长能力、保障现金流的充足几方面来应对财务危机。     

R&D investment and internal finance: the cash flow effect

This paper investigates the cash flow effect on R&D investments for firms in Denmark. Evidence is found that internal funds are important in explaining R&D investments, indicating that R&D investment decisions are affected by credit market imperfections. Cash flow sensitivities are larger both for smaller firms and for firms with low debt relative to assets. Furthermore, this effect is also present after controlling for cash flow’s potential role as a predictor of future profitability.     

Effects of financial constraints on export performance of firms during the global financial crisis: microeconomic evidence from Korea

This study uses a manufacturing firm-level panel data set of South Korea for 2006–2013 to investigate the effect of financial constraints on the export performance of firms, with particular emphasis on the corporate ownership structure. The empirical results show that foreign multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries are not affected by financial constraint during both crisis and noncrisis periods, implying advantages of foreign ownership. However, domestic firms suffer more from financial constraints on exports during crisis years. In particular, domestic firms without parent firms are financially constrained during both crisis and noncrisis periods. However, those with parent firms do not experience financial constraints during noncrisis periods, although they too suffer from them during crisis periods. Thus, parent–subsidiary linkage among domestic firms plays an important role in alleviating financial constraints on export activity in noncrisis years but not as much during crisis years. Therefore, domestic parent firms exhibit less resilience to the global financial crisis, in comparison to foreign MNC parent firms.     

CEO的财务经历有利于缓解企业融资约束吗*

CEO的财务经历有利于其做出合理的融资决策和投资决策,从而有助于降低企业融资约束。以2000—2013年沪深A股上市公司作为研究对象,本文实证检验结果证明了笔者的这一假设。该结论在控制内生性以及采用其他指标衡量融资约束等稳健性检验之后仍然成立。进一步检验结果表明,在外部融资条件较差时,CEO财务经历对于缓解融资约束的作用更为显著;同时,CEO财务经历有助于企业提高投资绩效。这表明了具有财务经历的CEO通过提高企业外部融资能力和投资决策的合理性,从而缓解企业融资约束。本文在丰富高阶梯队理论和融资约束领域文献的同时,对于上市公司制定科学合理的CEO聘任决策以及缓解融资约束等方面有重要的启示。     

美国金融危机成因分析及对中国的警示

美国金融危机引发全球金融市场动荡。这场金融危机从美国的房地产市场开始，以惊人的速度蔓延，波及至信贷市场、资本市场，封全球尤其是西方金融机构和金融市场造成重大冲击，短期内升级为全球金融风暴。中国目前正处于资产价格上涨、信贷投放过度的经济环境之中，美国的金融危机给中国敲响了警钟。本文通过描述此次危机的发展脉络，在分析美国金融危机背景的基础上，从强化房地产按揭贷款业务风险管理，审慎推进资产证券化等六个方面得出了对中国的警示。     

The effects of cash flow and size on the investment decisions of ICT firms: A dynamic approach

This paper examines one of the fastest growing industries in our world today, the ICT industry. We assess the sensitivity of a firm’s investment to a set of financial determinants, by developing a flexible adjustment dynamic model. In particular, we examine the degree to which a firm’s liquidity influences firm investment and whether firm size and firm specialization have any additional implications. Moreover, the effect of the dot-com burst is also considered. For a panel of ICT and non-ICT US companies listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, the results reveal the following: (1) all firms are sensitive to the availability of internal funds; (2) investment intensity decreases with firm size; (3) and leverage negatively affects investment for ICT firms.     

The global financial crisis and protectionism: Substitution from tariffs to non-tariff measures

This study empirically investigates the relationships between tariffs and non-tariff measures before and after the global financial crisis (GFC). The panel analysis is based on traded products of 70 countries from 1997 to 2015. For developed countries, we find that tariffs and non-tariff measures were complementary before the crisis, but they became substitutional afterward. We do not find such shift for developing countries. We also run the analysis by income levels and by types of products and observe differential effects of the GFC on the relationship between the two trade policies.     

The Korean financial crisis and the soft budget constraint

A panel of Korean firms is used to test for the soft budget constraint (SBC) in bank lending before and after the 1997–1998 financial crisis. SBC is present if a firm can borrow from its bank despite being in financial distress, which we define by a low Altman's z-score. We find that prior to 1997 financially distressed firms were able to borrow while after the crisis their ability to borrow declined substantially. We also demonstrate that SBC was a significant factor in the firms’ propensity to default during the crisis.     

企业现金流量表结构分析浅探

现金流量是企业生存和发展的命脉,现金流量状况直接反映企业这一组织有机体的健康情况,是衡量企业价值的重要指标。现金流量表的结构分析,就是在现金流量有关数据的基础上对不同项目间的比较与分析,旨在明确现金流入、流出的构成及现金余额的形成情况,分析一定时期内影响现金额增减变化的主要因素,为企业管理者抓住现金流量管理重点提供科学依据,从而实现企业现金的最佳配置和使用。